I had done significant research on my Willis clan, who migrated from Dorchester County, Maryland and landed in Western North Carolina in the 1760s, to the point that I had turned over every possible rock in North Carolina records. As I began to turn an eye toward finding out where males of this family were migrating to, as they left Rutherford in the late 1700s and early 1800s, the DNA match lists of the 10 family kits we have on Ancestry began to provide some hints. And the first place they pointed to was McMinn County, Tennessee.
Ancestry user Shaun Campbell provided our first major find about our McMinn County roots. Shaun was showing up near the top of many of my family's DNA match lists when I searched their lists on the surname Willis. In examining Shaun's tree, he had a dead end on Mark H Willis who resided in Miller County, Arkansas in 1920, at age 75, and appears to have died at some point prior to the 1930 Census.
I was able to track Mark H Willis back in time, using census data:
1920 age 75. Miller County, Ark. Birthplace: Mo
1910 age 54. Lafayette Co, Ark. Birthplace: Ga.
These two census provide significant conflicting information. Different counties, different places of birth, inconsistent ages. But, in each case, wife Georgia remains consistent, as do children William M and Braxton, and their respective ages. We can only conclude that the census takers were not careful about information accuracy.
1900 age 47. Lafayette Co, Ark. Birthplace: Mo. Father born:Tenn. Mother born: Tenn.
1880 age 25. Ouachita Co. Ark. Birthplace: Ark. Father born:Tenn. Mother born: Tenn.
At this point, I knew that Shaun and I had to be related through Willis in some way. While most of my Willis clan migrated away from Rutherford County, NC in the late 1700s and early 1800s, my 3G Grandfather, Jacob Willis 1780-1828, remained. Jacob had a large family, 7 sons and 5 daughters. Years after his 1828 death, around 1850, three of his sons (James 1808-1883, John 1816-1886, and Johnson 1817-1886) packed up their wagons and moved to Boone and Marion Counties, Arkansas. They took their mother, Lydia, with them. I suspected that they likely located near the family of Shaun's Mark, who was already in Arkansas.
I thought it also possible that Shaun's Mark might be a son of one of these Willis uncles in this Arkansas migration. We could account for both James and John, and the details of their families, but had no information on Johnson. So, I contacted Shaun and asked him force a path in his tree that took him back thru Johnson, to the family of Jacob Willis married to Lydia Black. When Shaun made these changes to his tree, he showed up in our DNA Circles around Jacob and Lydia, matching DNA with every member, or family group, in each of these circles. I then knew I was on the right track. I just needed to confirm Shaun's path back to our 1700s Rutherford County Willis clan.
The primary hint I had to work with was that the 1 male son in Mark's family was William H Willis. My working assumption was that William was possibly Mark's father's name. So, I searched the 1870 census of Ouachita Co, Ark., looking for households headed by a William, and with a Mark as a son.
I then found:
1870 W H Willis age 45. Ouachita Co. Ark. Birthplace: Tenn. Spouse Martha age 35. Birthplace: Tenn. Son: M H Willis age 16. Birthplace: Tenn.
1860 William W Willis age 31. Dade Co, Ga. Brithplace: Ark. Spouse Martha age 29. Birthplace: Tenn. Son: Mark H Willis age 5. Birthplace: Tenn.
The inconsistencies in ages, birthplaces, middle initials is enough to drive us nuts, but I have seen many instances of wildly inconsistent information in census data. Taken as a whole, these do appear to be the same households however. The children's names and ages are consistent from 1860 to 1870: Elizabeth 8 to 18, Sarah 3 to 13, Mark 5 to 16, Rachel 1 to 10. So, I found Shaun's Mark, and Mark's father, William.
What I initially could not understand is why William would be migrating from Tenn to Georgia, and who was this Hale family that William and his family were residing with in the 1860 census? The answer came in a marriage bond I found back in McMinn County, Tennessee. William H Willis married Martha Haid (Hale) on Jan 24, 1851. Per the 1860 Census, oldest child Elizabeth would have been born in 1852. William and the family of his in-laws likely then migrated to Georgia at some point between 1851 and 1860. Everything was making sense.
So, what were William's roots? I went on a hunt for a William (W or H) Willis in McMinn, Tennessee. I found:
1850 Will Willes age 22. McMinn, Tenn. Also in household: John Willes age 21.
While I had no clue at this point whether this was my William, I knew the age was fairly consistent from the 1850 to the 1860 Census. And, there were very few Willis families in McMinn, so I suspected this was William.
Next, I turned to Ancestry to do a search of trees with a William Willis born around 1828 in McMinn. I found various trees with a household headed by Samuel Willis, with sons William and John. The ages were a match. And, I then found Samuel's 1850 household census, tracked it back over time, and noted that it had info that was consistent with many of the trees on Ancestry:
1850 Saml Willis age 50. McMinn, Tenn. Birthplace: NC (so, born 1800 in NC) Spouse: Elizabeth age 49. Birthplace: Virginia. (No sons William or John. It made sense though that they aged out, moved out) Children: Jessee 19, Griffin 14, Rachel 12, David 7.
1840 Sam Willis. McMinn, Tenn. There were 2 males 10-14 years of age, so these could be William and John in the 1850 census. Jesse, Griffin and Rachel who were over 10 years of age in 1850 appear to be accounted for in this 1840 census. There are 2 females ages 10-14 in 1840 who do appear to have aged out before the 1850 census and are yet to be accounted for.
1830 Saml Willis. McMinn, Tenn. There are 2 males under 5, so these could be William and John of the 1850 census. There is 1 female under 5 and 1 who is 5-9. This appears consistent with the 1840 census.
At this point I was perplexed. I had done a thorough search of court and land records of 1769 - 1820 Tryon and Rutherford Counties, NC. There was no Samuel Willis [Addendum Feb 2019 I later found a 1819 record of Samuel serving on a jury in Rutherford County, NC]. And the male name Samuel was not a male name used in my family at any point in its first four generations. But, it was clear that Shaun's path was coming thru Samuel. And it was clear that Shaun had strong DNA ties into all the Willis family kits that rolled up through my 3G grandfather, Jacob Willis 1780-1828. So, somehow, some way, this Samuel had to be related to my Willis clan.
In future posts, I will follow thru with the additional discoveries I made that tied my 1700s Willis clan of Rutherford Co, NC to the Willis of 1800s McMinn, Tenn. For now, we know that Shaun's path is:
Mark H Willis 1856 - aft 1920 m. Georgia Copack
William H Willis 1826 - 1899 m. Martha Hale
Samuel Willis 1800 - aft 1850 m. Elizabeth Jane Morris
We will resolve the rest in posts to come.
Addendum Feb 2019:
Samuel was the son of James Willis 1780-aft 1830. James and his two sons, Samuel and William left Rutherford County, NC in the early 1820s and migrated to McMinn County, Tn. Samuel dies at some point after 1830. William goes down into Alabama, although we have not been able to locate census records down there yet for him. Samuel is in the 1850 census of McMinn with details about his family.
James was the son of William Willis Jr who came to Rutherford Co, NC in the 1760s along with his father, William Willis Sr 1717-1782, from Dorchester County, Maryland.
See also, THIS POST.
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